Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Tiebreaker Times

News

National selection bubble just a start for PSI


After months of waiting, the Philippine Swimming, Inc. was grateful to have finally hosted the Swimming National Selection meet last October 22-24, 2021. In fact, it was a strong statement to have done so if you ask its president, Lailani Velasco.

“To be honest, there were plenty of hurdles that we needed to overcome,” said the sports executive. “I have to admit that at some point, we doubted it would even happen. But we’ve worked hard for this since early this year and we did not want to let our community down.

“This was really for our members and for the entire country. We wanted to show the country that we can recover from this pandemic through sports… through swimming,” she continued.

The meet was a collaborative effort from several agencies, and Velasco hopes and knows that this was just the beginning of many things.

“We are definitely relieved that we were able to pull this off and we are, in fact, excited to organize more events in the future,” she expressed. “Of course, we have to thank the IATF, PSC, BCDA, and CDC for working with us from the beginning in making this event happen.”

The long-time swimming body leader was not expecting too much from the swimmers in terms of performance in the selection meet as it was the first meet in over two years for all the swimmers who entered the competition.2021-PSI-Swimming-National-Meet-NCC National selection bubble just a start for PSI News Swimming  - philippine sports news

Velasco admitted, “We have to manage our expectations given that our swimmers had to abide by all the quarantine restrictions being enacted throughout the country. We tried our best to give them enough time to prepare for the event but the reality is that the situation is always going to be volatile.

“Despite that, we were able to see remarkable performances by a few of our up-and-coming grassroots swimmers. In fact, we are delighted that a national record was even established during the event. We hope all our swimmers continue to persevere. We also hope that those who were not able to participate are motivated to join us in the next event,” she continued.

#ReadMore  VP athletes salute frontliners anew in commemoration of Labor Day

The following year will be a busy one for the country as we gear up for several international competitions like the Southeast Asian Games and the Asian Games. Swimming, on the other hand, particularly has its own World Championships for 2022.

Velasco knew of the fact and said that the national swimming body is looking forward to staging more meets, of course with the health of everyone involved on top of mind.

“We are definitely eyeing on a few more events, not just for our elite swimmers, but also for our age groupers. Eventually, we hope to get back to our usual calendar of activities. Maybe that will happen in 2022 or 2023,” Velasco hopes.

“But we will definitely always have the health and safety of our members as a priority.”

Written By


You May Also Like

News

Michael ‘Miko’ Vargas, a long-time supporter of swimming, was elected as the ‘transition’ president of Philippine Swimming, Inc. (PSI). The 43-year-old Vargas, the second...

News

The Philippine Swimming Inc. (PSI) bared on Thursday that the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has not dismissed the two appeals filed by...

News

Five months since his last visit to the country, renowned swimming coach Luka Gabrilo is back in town to personally oversee the training and...

News

Team Pilipinas is set to make waves and possibly bring home a considerable medal haul at the coming 44th Southeast Asian Age Group Swimming...

News

The Philippines has suffered from an exodus of great sporting talents in the past couple of years, the most notable of which is chess...

News

A successful sports program at the national level is marked by having the best talents willing and available to train and, eventually, compete for...

News

Olympic medalist and Filipino-Canadian swimmer Kayla Sanchez has decided to represent and compete for the Philippines. The Philippine Swimming Incorporated made the announcement in...

News

The Philippine Swimming Incorporated will only send three national team stalwarts to the upcoming 19th FINA World Championships set from June 17-July 3 in...

Advertisement